#jomo

Not too long ago my husband and his sister enlightened me on YOLO and FOMO. I am so sure I am the only person who was not familiar with these acronyms but just so as no to sell my self short and have you MO (Miss Out) – (You Only Live Once -YOLO), (Fear of Missing Out – FOMO)… and JOMO – will unfold below.

Google on FOMO: ‘anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.’

The Urban Dictionary on JOMO: ‘Joy of Missing Out: You’re enjoying what you’re doing in the here and now and not on social media broadcasting or seeing what everybody else is doing. Opposite of fomo or the fear of missing out.’

I have to admit to being surprised that terminology like this actually existed – worse than that – the mindset existed so predominantly to then create these terms. I did not get what people were MO-ing out on… I surely did not feel like I was MO-ing on anything and that because of YOLO you need to die hard. ?? Seriously?? Social media has done wonders for the world and businesses…. but…. it’s really created a whole new set of insecurities and negatively impacted relationships.

Okay – so I’m not judging but I really didn’t get it. So… I took stock… feeling insecure for 10 seconds that there’s perhaps things out there or people out there that I am missing out on. What could it be?? What am I missing out on other than sleep??

So my inventory told me:

Blessed with great family. May they always be blessed.

Blessed with great friends. May they always be blessed.

Blessed with good health. By God’s Grace.

Blessed with a great community and a network of like minds.

Blessed with a roof over my head. By God’s and my Family’s Grace.

Blessed with good food so much so that I need to shed some of it. Ditto.

Blessed with a job that keeps me busy and so out of FOMO.

Hair dresser. Check.

Manicurist. Check.

Beauty Salon. Check.

Car. Check.

Community events. Check.

Social events. Check.

The Arts. Check.

Education. Check.

Travel & adventure. Check.

A stack of books needing to be read. Check.

Local coffee shops and pubs to have a good girlie catch up. Check.

Profile on Twitter, FaceBook, etc. Check.

Tons of group chats on WhatsApp. Check.

Full calendar just balancing this all out. Check. Check. Check.

etc.. etc.. etc.. (In the words of Yule Bryner in ‘The King and I’)

Nope. Could not find what I was missing out on. And so I could not relate. Am I square?

The next day I asked a friend (very naive of me) if she was familiar with these acronyms…and she said this…’There’s a new one! JOMO!’

Oh no! I’m really out of it. I’m so not cool. I so don’t speak today’s ‘lingo’. Some cool mum I’ve set out to be! I surrender… ‘Okay, and that stands for?’

‘Joy of Missing Out’

My eyes brightened and I yelled, ‘That’s me!!! I’m JOMO!! I love missing out on what I’m not sure I’m missing out on, and so I don’t know what I’m missing out on, which makes me very Happy missing it all!!! I’m SO JOMO! Now I can relate to a cool title!’

On Saturday night, I related this conversation to another friend who probably thought I was slightly loosing the plot.

And today…. I read this fab post by Shweta Bachchan Nanda…. and I don’t feel so all alone any more in my world of JOMO. 🙂 I’m sure you’ll have a few chuckles as I did.